Swine flu advice for businesses

Try to prevent the virus from infecting your staff. Encourage the use of tissues, hand washing and hand gel. Remind people of the ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’ advice.
If members of your staff do become ill, encourage them to remain at home whilst they are infectious. The virus can quickly spread round your workforce and cripple your business. See if any staff can work from home.
Work out which are the essential activities for your business, i.e. those which you cannot stop without harming your business.
As part of this, decide who your key members of staff are and whether any of them have key skills which no-one else has. If so start training other people.
Make sure you have a plan in place to deal with the absence of members of staff who are ill. Have you thought about who will do their job?
Check with your suppliers that they will be able to cope with losing their staff due to illness. Is there anyone else that could supply you?
Involve your staff at all stages of planning and keep them informed about new policies. There will be many questions for managers to answer, so ensure you have researched your plan thoroughly.
Make sure you know how to contact all your staff in an emergency. Do you have up to date phone numbers for everyone so you can tell them information in an emergency?
Remember, most business that do not have a plan will close down following a disruption. Make sure you have made one in advance of your business being affected.

Contact the Borough Contingencies Unit

If you have any questions or comments about emergency planning, please contact the Borough Contingencies Unit.